Croatia's Valamar Riviera 9-mo cons EBITDA rises

Baska. Author: Valamar. License: All rights reserved.

ZAGREB (Croatia), October 27 (SeeNews) - Croatian hotel operator Valamar Riviera [ZSE:RIVP-R-A] said on Friday its consolidated EBITDA rose 19% on the year to 772 million kuna ($119.5 million/102.8 million euro) in the first nine months of 2017.

The company's sales revenues increased 20% year-on-year to 1.67 billion kuna in the nine months ended September 30, while the EBITDA margin remained at 46%, it said in a filing with the Zagreb bourse.

Sales revenues growth was largely driven by a 23% rise in board revenues to 1.39 million kuna, the company said.

Valamar's total revenues rose by 17% year-on-year to 1.74 billion kuna in the first nine months of 2017.

The company recorded a rise of 20% in the number of overnight stays to 5,925,880 in the review period, while the average daily rate rose by 6%.

Board revenue growth was mainly driven by the acquisition of Imperial hotel group, large investments focused on improving competitiveness and the quality of services and products, demand-driven optimization of the distribution and price management, and better occupancy and strong business results achieved during the first half of 2017, Valamar said.

The company also completed its largest investments cycle worth over 900 million kuna, a majority of which was focused on revamping the Rabac-based four-star Family Life Bellevue Resort and 4 and 5 star Valamar Girandella Resort.

Valamar earlier announced it will invest up to 2 billion kuna in its properties by 2020. In 2018, it plans to strategically reposition its hotel and camping portfolio towards products and services with high added value.

The hotel operator expects its EBITDA to come in between 600 million kuna and 610 million kuna in business year 2017, while total consolidated operating net revenues are projected to reach 1.69 billion kuna.

The Valamar group runs hotels, apartment villages and campsites in Istria and in Dubrovnik and on the islands of Krk and Pag.

Tourism is a key industry for Croatia, generating around a fifth of the country's gross domestic product.